Ontario Auditor’s Office Confirms It Has No Plans Now To Audit NPCA

Multiple Calls across Niagara/Hamilton for Audit of Conservation Authority left up in the air

A News Update from Doug Draper, reporter/publisher, Niagara At Large

Posted September 25th, 2017 on Niagara At Large

A spokesperson for Ontario’s Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk confirmed this September 25th that it has turned down a request to do an independent audit of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s operations.

The Auditor’s Office is not able to audit the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) “at this point in time because we are focused on other audits,” Christine Pedias, the Office’s manager of corporate communications, confirmed during a call from Niagara At Large this September 25th, adding that the Office is now consumed with getting its annual report on provincial operations completed for released later this Fall.

A request for the audit came from the NPCA in the wake of months of pressing from citizens across the region, from area MPPs, and from more than half of the local councils in Niagara and from the council for the City of Hamilton for a thorough, third-party audit of the Conservation Authority’s books.

As Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster put it in an interview on CKTB radio in St. Catharines this September 25th, pressure for such an audit came from local councils and MPPs collectively representing about a million people across the Niagara and Hamilton areas.

Forster said in the radio interview that she is disappointed to learn the Ontario Auditor doesn’t have time now to get to the bottom of a host of concerns and questions that have been raisedpublicly about NPCA’s hiring and firing practices, its awarding of contracts to private consultants and other matters, but understands the Auditor’s Office is very busy at the moment.

The NPCA, added Forster, should now move forward with hiring a reputable auditing agency and “open up (its) books completely”so that the people of Niagara and Hamilton finally have their concerns and questions addressed.

Until that happens, a “cloud is going to remain over (the) heads of members of the NPCA’s board of directors – a majority of whom are regional councillors and mayors in Niagara – as the months go by to next year’s municipal elections, Forster said.

Niagara At Large will have more news and commentary on this issue as developments unfold, so stay tuned.

NIAGARA AT LARGE encourages you to join the conversation by sharing your views on this post in the space below the Bernie quote.

A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.

For more news and commentary from Niagara At Large – an independent, alternative voice for our greater bi-national Niagara region – become a regular visitor and subscriber to NAL atwww.niagaraatlarge.com .

“A politician thinks of the next election. A leader thinks of the next generation.” – Bernie Sanders

2 responses to “Ontario Auditor’s Office Confirms It Has No Plans Now To Audit NPCA”

Timing is everything! We know how hat when you hire a service the server certificate provides “what you want”. NPCA should save the money that it wants to pay for an independent audit. Hopefully the provincial government will do the right thing.

THe Auditor General at the time told the NPCA Board and the medkia that they could fit them in for the Audit at no cost to the Niagara Region and its associated Municipalities “THIS IS THE TRUTH……I DON”T GIVE A DAMN WHAT THE CHAIR of the NPCA TRIES TO SPIN” THat they screwed around to make certain the AUDITOR GENERAL was too busy to do the AUDIT is beyond the realm of honesty within a Board that is supposed to Represent the PEOPLE….IN MY OPINION this is also the TRUTH and the CENSURING of BILL HODGSON was just a ploy by the Board especially when NOT ONE Board memberrose in defense of Councilor Hodgson……This is my opinion and in conclusion I find the this NPCA and the Board members to be totally disgusting.